Hotter. Younger. Prettier. Better. More attractive. More beautiful. More skinny. More “Perfect.”

These are the kind of words used by the mysterious eponymous corporation at the heart of 2024’s most controversial horror film “The Substance” to describe the product’s effects on their customers. A dangerously underground substance, the drug comes into the attention of recently fired actress Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) who just lost her job as main host of an aerobics program for reaching the age of 50, a deliberate move by the network (manifested by a rather quirky performance by Dennis Quaid playing the unsubtly named “Harvey”) to grab much younger, “hotter” talent.

Students discussing books at Open Books bookstore in Pensacola.

Spotlight on Open Books

Open Books is a local nonprofit bookstore and community project in downtown Pensacola. The bookstore is entirely run by volunteers, with all proceeds going to support the Prison Book Project which donates books to inmates throughout Florida prisons. The project itself has been in the works since 1999, with the CORE (Collective of Resource Empowerment) House.